Went to recycle an old MacBook at the local Best Buy and was refused service unless I paid $25. I showed the "supervisor" the text on their website and was told the county requires the fee. Fine, then I looked up the county info and they take laptops for ecycle at the local landfill, no fee mentioned. Asked again and pointed at the MacBook Pro and four or five cell phones carelessly dumped on top of the small item recycling station by the front door. "Nope, anything with a screen is $25."

Anyone care to divine what the heck Best Buy was talking about? I see a $25 fee for certain computer displays and TVs, that's it. Apparently if I'm a jerk and just leave my stuff by the front door, all would have been okay. Being courteous and I got the run around. Was never shown any proof of this "$25 anything with a screen" requirement.

[www.bestbuy.com]

"Accepted at Best Buy Stores
Recycling is intended for residents only. Products from businesses and organizations, or items that present a health or safety hazard are not accepted.
Products We Recycle for Free
Limit three items per household per day.

- All-in-One Computers
- Battery Backups (UPS)*
- Cables and Connectors*
- CD/DVD Drives*
- Computer Speakers/Controllers
- Desktops
- Hard Drives*
- Ink/Toner Cartridges
- Laptop Batteries*
- Laptops*
- Memory*
- Mice and Keyboards*
- Modems/Routers/Hubs*
- Web Cams
- Netbooks*
- Printers/Scanners/Fax
- Sound/Video Cards*
- Tablets*
- E-Readers*
Products We Recycle for a $25 Fee
Limit two monitors per household per day.

- Monitors
Products with an asterisk (*) are also accepted at Best Buy Mobile Stores. There are no store drop-off fees in California. Stores in Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania do not accept monitors for drop-off."

Here's the change in recycling policy posted February this year, still nothing about refusing laptops:
[corporate.bestbuy.com]

"We are now charging customers $25 for each TV and computer monitor they recycle at our stores. And in two states – Illinois and Pennsylvania – we are no longer recycling these particular products because of laws that prevent us from collecting fees to help run our program. All other products – such as batteries, ink cartridges, computers, printers and hundreds of other items – continue to be recycled for free at all of our stores."

That Best Buy "supervisor" is an idiot. As your Best Buy list shows (and you should show them that BB list) BB now charges $25 for recycling CRT displays only. This does not mean that $25 is to be charged for any device with a display, just CRT displays.

Your posted list from Best Buy clearly states that laptops and netbooks as well as all-in-one PC's are recycled for free.

Best Buy was one of the last places that one could take CRT's for recycling at no cost. That list probably should be modified to include words like "tube" and "CRT" because that could cause certain Best Buy stores to refuse to take LCD monitors as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2016 04:53AM by Sam3.

Call corporate. But call the county first.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

Is researching and proving the incompetence of a Best Buy manager really worth it?

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“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in."

Yeah, the county has nothing better to do than to enforce BestBuy's internal policies. Plus the fact that at the end of each week, the recycling barrel gets tossed into the dumpster out back.

Yeah. It's about CRTs.

CRTs are often costly to recycle because of the lead in the glass. Several pounds of it per CRT. Very dangerous to store and difficult to recycle. The displays often end up in illegal stockpiles or sent to garbage dumps in 3rd world nations.

It looks like they also charge a few for recycling LCD TVs, which I'm guessing is due to the typical size and storage costs for them.

...

My local Staples had the same problem - idiots at the help desk who don't know the store policies. Every time they change their recycling policy (every year), I end up arguing with them. Back in 2012, they launched a "free" recycling program for computer gear and the clerk tried to charge me a per pound fee. They still have managers who think they don't take Epson ink cartridges back for recycling.

Easier to take the stuff to the dump on ecycling days.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2016 07:03AM by Onamuji.

Quote
PeterW
Yeah, the county has nothing better to do than to enforce BestBuy's internal policies. Plus the fact that at the end of each week, the recycling barrel gets tossed into the dumpster out back.

[www.youtube.com]

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The Phorum Wall keeps us safe from illegal characters and words
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[soundcloud.com]

OMG! I could have written that exact same post last week. I had a plasma and an LCD iMac. I'd resigned to paying the $25 for the plasma (as per their policy) but they wanted to charge me another $25 for the iMac. Manager said, "anything with a screen" even after showing him their own policy. I left after having a few more words about Best Buy in general (without making a scene). He followed me out to the parking lot trying to argue me down from being upset. Class act.

I drove across town to the dump (which also does e recycling) and paid them $15 for the lot, but that involved going to the dump.

Local county household hazmat disposal day. Stick it on your calendar. Every year I dispose of a lot of stuff. My company also takes eWaste from employees on Earth day. Our normal electronics waste disposal company handles it. We also make electrical equipment and generate a large stream of materials into outside recycling companies. Not to mention the cafeteria recycles leftovers from the day before into next day's soup.

Lemme give you this - which links to how to get free shipping on recycling -

[thewirecutter.com]

Z

MacBook, LCD iMac. Even in non-working condition, I find it difficult to believe you could not sell these items on ebay.

Quote
Forrest
MacBook, LCD iMac. Even in non-working condition, I find it difficult to believe you could not sell these items on ebay.

THIS.

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Staples will take them
BB just changed a bunch of their services
Tv's used to be free delivery and set up.
Now it is free delivery of the box. If you want is assembled it is $49, If you want it hooked up to your system it is another $49 and on and on

Is researching and proving the incompetence of a Best Buy manager really worth it?

It's not about proving incompetence, it's about being able to drop off gear to be recycled, again, without the same hassle.


Yeah, the county has nothing better to do than to enforce BestBuy's internal policies.

It's not about the county enforcing BB's internal policies, it's about finding out if in fact the county is requiring the fee, and if BB is lying.


MacBook, LCD iMac. Even in non-working condition, I find it difficult to believe you could not sell these items on ebay.

Me, myself, would not bother with eBay because I just don't like the hassle/risk of selling. I do buy from eBay, occasionally.

This whole corporate policy of "We recycle, for free..." and having the local stores saying "no, we don't..." is BS.

Kragen Auto (now somebody else) used to say they'd take used oil for recycling. But every time I took it to two stores, they's say "sorry, no, we're full up right now". I finally got it straightened out, but no longer do my own oil changes. At least somebody else may have benefited as well.

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We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

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Quote
decay

Quote
Forrest
MacBook, LCD iMac. Even in non-working condition, I find it difficult to believe you could not sell these items on ebay.

THIS.

2007 Core 2 Duo Black MacBook. It's painfully slow to use for anything approaching real work (seriously, I'd rather use my cell phone most days), I pulled the SSD, RAM, battery, kept the Magsafe charger, and I might pull out the WiFi card too. 9 year old computer that can't officially run anything greater than 10.7 and even if you pay $10 for 10.8 and run the hack to get it to install, all modern browsers are dropping support anyway. Oh, and I find the screen to be rather dim. Seriously, if I could get $25, would be surprised.

When an Ivy Bridge Core i5 laptop with 8GB RAM, 480GB SSD, and USB 3.0 was $300....I'm not sure if I see a big market here. case plastics are in okay shape I suppose.

Quote
RAMd®d
Is researching and proving the incompetence of a Best Buy manager really worth it?

It's not about proving incompetence, it's about being able to drop off gear to be recycled, again, without the same hassle.

Yes. This is my concern. Best Buy is around the corner from me, maybe 3 miles? It's convenient and their service has always been pretty dang decent. Honestly, I think the guy was pissed because the customer in front of me ripped him a new one. Not saying it was his fault, but then the way he tried to ream me for a fee and denied the website info...I'm less than thrilled with the service.

Corporate disagrees with the supervisor and when I called the same local store today, they confirmed laptops are free for disposal and were confused when I explained my experience last night.

Quote
RAMd®d
Yeah, the county has nothing better to do than to enforce BestBuy's internal policies.

It's not about the county enforcing BB's internal policies, it's about finding out if in fact the county is requiring the fee, and if BB is lying.

Yeah. I won't say lying because I'm nice, let's just say mistaken.

Quote
RAMd®d
MacBook, LCD iMac. Even in non-working condition, I find it difficult to believe you could not sell these items on ebay.

Me, myself, would not bother with eBay because I just don't like the hassle/risk of selling. I do buy from eBay, occasionally.

Yeah. This old BlackBook has seen much better days. I'd be lucky to get $25 for parts.

Quote
Z
Lemme give you this - which links to how to get free shipping on recycling -

[thewirecutter.com]

Z

Thanks for the link. That might prove very handy.

Quote
cbelt3
Local county household hazmat disposal day. Stick it on your calendar. Every year I dispose of a lot of stuff. My company also takes eWaste from employees on Earth day. Our normal electronics waste disposal company handles it. We also make electrical equipment and generate a large stream of materials into outside recycling companies. Not to mention the cafeteria recycles leftovers from the day before into next day's soup.

The dump will take this stuff, but only at certain times and certain days of the week. And it is likely a 30 minute drive. I can do that, but I'd rather take a bunch at once.

Quote
bruceko
Staples will take them

Oh, thanks!